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Title: Pope Baptizes Prominent Italian Muslim
Source:
http://www.breitbart.com
URL Source: http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D8VIR44G0&show_article=1
Published: Mar 23, 2008
Author: NICOLE WINFIELD
Post Date: 2008-03-23 13:09:03 by robin
Keywords: None
Views: 126
Comments: 5
Pope Baptizes Prominent Muslims at Easter Vigil (Video of Baptisms) VATICAN CITY (AP) - Italy's most prominent Muslim, an iconoclastic writer who condemned Islamic extremism and defended Israel, converted to Catholicism Saturday in a baptism by the pope at a Vatican Easter service. An Egyptian-born, non-practicing Muslim who is married to a Catholic, Magdi Allam infuriated some Muslims with his books and columns in the newspaper Corriere della Sera newspaper, where he is a deputy editor. He titled one book "Long Live Israel." As a choir sang, Pope Benedict XVI poured holy water over Allam's head and said a brief prayer in Latin. "We no longer stand alongside or in opposition to one another," Benedict said in a homily reflecting on the meaning of baptism. "Thus faith is a force for peace and reconciliation in the world: distances between people are overcome, in the Lord we have become close." Vatican Television zoomed in on Allam, who sat in the front row of the basilica along with six other candidates for baptism. He later received his first Communion. Allam, 55, told the newspaper Il Giornale in a December interview that his criticism of Palestinian suicide bombing provoked threats on his life in 2003, prompting the Italian government to provide him with a sizable security detail. The Union of Islamic Communities in Italy—which Allam has frequently criticized as having links to Hamas—said the baptism was his own decision. "He is an adult, free to make his personal choice," the Apcom news agency quoted the group's spokesman, Issedin El Zir, as saying. Yahya Pallavicini, vice president of Coreis, the Islamic religious community in Italy, said he respected Allam's choice but said he was "perplexed" by the symbolic and high-profile way in which he chose to convert. "If Allam truly was compelled by a strong spiritual inspiration, perhaps it would have been better to do it delicately, maybe with a priest from Viterbo where he lives," the ANSA news agency quoted Pallavicini as saying. The nighttime Easter vigil service at St. Peter's Basilica marked the period between Good Friday, which commemorates Jesus' crucifixion, and Easter Sunday, which marks his resurrection. Benedict opened by blessing a white candle, which he then carried down the main aisle of the darkened basilica. Slowly, the pews began to light up as his flame was shared with candles carried by the faithful, until the whole basilica twinkled and the main lights came on. The pope administers baptism "without making any 'difference of people,' that is, considering all equally important before the love of God and welcoming all in the community of the Church," said the Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi. Allam, who has a young son with his Catholic wife and two adult children from a previous relationship, indicated in the Il Giornale interview that he would have no problem converting to Christianity. He said he had even received Communion once—when he was 13 or 14—"even though I knew it was an act of blasphemy, not having been baptized." He did not speak to the press Saturday and his newspaper said it had no information about his conversion. Allam said in the interview that he had made a pilgrimage to Mecca, as is required of all Muslims, with his deeply religious mother in 1991, although he was not otherwise observant. "I was never practicing," he was quoted as saying. "I never prayed five times a day, facing Mecca. I never fasted during Ramadan." Allam also explained his decision to title a recent book "Viva Israele" by saying he wrote it after he received death threats from Hamas. "Having been condemned to death, I have reflected a long time on the value of life. And I discovered that behind the origin of the ideology of hatred, violence and death is the discrimination against Israel. Everyone has the right to exist except for the Jewish state and its inhabitants," he said. "Today, Israel is the paradigm of the right to life." In 2006, Allam was a co-winner, with three other journalists, of the $1 million Dan David prize, named for an Israeli entrepreneur. Allam was cited for "his ceaseless work in fostering understanding and tolerance between cultures." There is no overarching Muslim law on conversion. But under a widespread interpretation of Islamic legal doctrine, converting from Islam is apostasy and punishable by death—though killings are rare. Egypt's highest Islamic cleric, the Grand Mufti Ali Gomaa, wrote last year against the killing of apostates, saying there is no worldly retribution for Muslims who abandon their religion and that punishment would come in the afterlife. On Wednesday, a new audio message from Osama bin Laden accused the pope of playing a "large and lengthy role" in a "new Crusade" against Islam that included the publication of drawings of the Prophet Muhammad that many Muslims found insulting. Lombardi said Thursday that bin Laden's accusation was baseless. He said Benedict repeatedly criticized the Muhammad cartoons, first published in some European newspapers in 2006 and republished by Danish papers in February.
AP: Italy's most prominent Muslim, an iconoclastic writer who condemned Islamic extremism and defended Israel, converted to Catholicism Saturday in a baptism by the pope at a Vatican Easter service. 
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#1. To: robin (#0)
That's gonna piss off a lot of the muzzy crazies in the world. He very well may get to die a martyr's death because I have no doubt some nutbar somewhere is going to issue a fatwa for his death for having the audacity to leave the gutter religion of Islam.
That is the traditional penalty. This guy has guts to take advantage of Europe's freedom in religion. More power to him! The world needs more people who exercise rights and thumb their noses in those who would deny rights to others.
America is not at war. The military is at war. America is at the mall and the Congress is out to lunch.
My comment wasn't in any way meant to belittle the gentleman. As you said, more power to him. I hope that he will be left alone, but I fear that the publicity of the event will make those of the Islamic gutter religion feel as if they have to do something. Many of them still live in the 12th century.
We should not lump those who have entered the modern era with those who still live in the past. The problem is telling them apart.
America is not at war. The military is at war. America is at the mall and the Congress is out to lunch.
did he express faith in anything but the right of antiChrist israel to exist....faith in Jesus Christ or the word of God, for instance? Pro 8:36 — But he that sinneth against me wrongeth his own soul: all they that hate me love death. 3:19 And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. Jhn 3:20 For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. . Jhn 1:9 [That] was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world. Jhn 1:10 He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not. Jhn 1:11 He came unto his own, and his own received him not. http://www.blueletterbible.org/tsk_b/Jhn/3/19.html As a choir sang, Pope Benedict XVI poured holy water over Allam's head and said a brief prayer in Latin. "We no longer stand alongside or in opposition to one another," Benedict said in a homily reflecting on the meaning of baptism. "Thus faith is a force for peace and reconciliation in the world: distances between people are overcome, in the Lord we have become close." i'm afraid this sounds like more one world religion mumbo jumo....baptism by the pope does not a Christian make.....remember the nwo plot...... "...‘You are deputized!’, the Rev. William E. Swing, bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of California, told delegates as they prepared to go home. ‘Tell the people that there is a United Religions, and that somewhere in the world, it is beginning to happen: that the religions are going to have an oasis where they can talk about peace.’[This conference was held June 23-27, 1997]”....." ONE-WORLD RELIGION NOW OFFICIALLY BORN!! .. The Director of the House of Theosophy, Bill Lambert, declares that the Roman Catholic Pope is going to be a "proper receptor" to the Antichrist ... ".....We have been predicting for a full decade now, that the current Ecumenical Movement was a precursor to the global religion of Antichrist, which, according to Scriptural Prophecy, is to be initially headed the False Prophet......" http://www.cuttingedge.org/articles/RC104.htm [ better link: thetruthshallsetyoufree.w...nt-to-the-united-nations/ ] After all, Alex Rothschild will need a religious leader to impose his fascist "Judeo-Christianity" on the nations: http://scepterofjudah.net/SJtract1-32.html . Biblical Christianity will need to step aside in their view of things.
President Wilson signed the Federal Reserve Act on December 23, 1913. History proved that on that day, the Constitution ceased to be the governing covenant of the American people, and our liberties were handed over to a small group of international bankers. - Secrets of the Federal Reserve by Eustace Mullins
#2. To: Hayek Fan (#1)
some nutbar somewhere is going to issue a fatwa for his death for having the audacity to leave the gutter religion of Islam
#3. To: mirage (#2)
This guy has guts to take advantage of Europe's freedom in religion. More power to him! The world needs more people who exercise rights and thumb their noses in those who would deny rights to others.
#4. To: Hayek Fan (#3)
Many of them still live in the 12th century.
#5. To: robin (#0)
(Edited)
I discovered that behind the origin of the ideology of hatred, violence and death is the discrimination against Israel. Everyone has the right to exist except for the Jewish state and its inhabitants," he said. "Today, Israel is the paradigm of the right to life."
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